Leningrad - Sept. 8, 1941

Citizens of Leningrad, Russia, Cleaning Rubble off a Street, Vsevolod Tarasevich, 8th March 1942 (Women’s Day),
TASS Russian News Agency.

The siege began on 8 September 1941, when the German Army severed the last road into the city. Although Soviet forces managed to open a narrow land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943, the Red Army did not lift the siege until 27 January 1944, 872 days after it began. The blockade became one of the longest and most destructive in history, and was possibly the costliest siege because of the number of casualties. An estimated 1.5 million people died as a result of the siege.